Printing plants, as well as other industrial plants, could be operated more efficiently by using robotic units to carry out various tasks, such as, palletizing and depalletizing materials. However, many plants do not have enough palletizing or depalletizing work in any one location to justify the expense of installing a robot dedicated to that particular location. However, despite this fact these same plants might have sufficient work dispersed around the plant to cumulatively justify the costs for one or more robots.
Generally, the robotic units used for palletizing or depalletizing work require a very stable base on which to operate which precludes transporting the same robot around a plant between various locations. However, advances in the development of image technology have made it possible to design lightweight, portable robots for palletizing and depalletizing work.
The focus of current robotics research in this area involves the integration of fixed overhead vision systems with robotic controls to provide object based motion planning. This technology permits fast, precise robot control while utilizing lightweight robot construction. Consequently, massive, stiff, super-accurate mechanical components would no longer be a requirement to achieve precision manipulations by the robotic unit. These advancements in robot technology will thus enable the use of overhead crane rails or runways, which could be of lightweight construction, for suspension of a robotic unit thereon.
The foregoing areas of robot technology are currently under development at many research facilities including the Center For Automation and Manufacturing Science, Institute for Manufacturing and Automation, at Stanford University.
It is also currently possible to use the same robotic unit in parallel working modes. For example, a minor programming adjustment enables the same robotic unit that had been implementing operational sequences which result in the performance of palletizing work to perform depalletizing work. Therefore, the technology exists for using the same robotic unit for palletizing work in one part of a printing plant and then transporting that unit to another area of the plant for depalletizing work in order to make more economical use of the robot. A robot working in an area experiencing a lull in operations, can thus be moved to another area needing a robot. Conversely, an area which has more work than the current supply of robots in that area can handle, could be provided with more robots.
It would be advantageous to arrange the work areas having materials for palletizing or depalletizing in a row with continuous crane track or rails over the row of work areas for supporting a robotic unit. The robotic units could then be moved along the rail to the particular work area having work for the unit.
When there is palletizing or depalletizing work for a robotic unit in an area between other working robots, it would be advantageous to be able to insert a robot onto the rail line to reach its work area without disturbing the other robots, rather than attaching all the robots sequentially over the work areas.
There is also a need to be able to move the robots on and off separate rail systems. The work areas for the robots would likely be dispersed in separate areas of the plant where the materials to be palletized or depalletized are located. Movement of the robots between these areas entails movement between non-contiguous overhead rail systems. Furthermore, some work areas may have extended down times. It is therefore highly advantageous to be able to move the robots between overhead rail work locations, and maintenance, repair or storage areas.
There has long been a need to provide a system for automating a printing plant which incorporates the use of portable robotic units which can be transported between non-contiguous rail lines and inserted into a particular location on a rail line without disturbing neighboring working robots.
There are many types of plants which would benefit from using portable robots which could be programmed to perform many different types of work, other than the palletizing/depalletizing tasks referred to herein.